Cabinet Office anticipates gradual GOV.UK Verify rollout

The Cabinet Office will pursue a gradual roll out of the GOV.UK Verify tool across the proposed 25 digital exemplar services as it prepares to launch a procurement process to appoint a second wave of private sector partners to provide identity assurance.

Designed by the Government Digital Service (GDS) in collaboration with various Whitehall departments, GOV.UK Verify will allow users to select one of several pre-chosen companies to perform a check on their identity – rather than relying on a single government database.

Currently being tested in public beta, the Cabinet Office said it expected the identity assurance tool to launch with one or two select digital exemplars in order to allow for ongoing user feedback and development. Wider implementation of GOV.UK Verify across other live exemplars is then expected to occur on a per service basis.

While outside of its mandate, the Cabinet Office said there was potential and interest for the service to be adopted by local authorities, though the development of an exact model for this is not expected to be devised until next year at the earliest.

"When you use GOV.UK Verify to access a government service, you will be asked to choose a certified company. The certified company (also known as an ‘identity provider’) will verify your identity to a defined level of assurance to meet published government standards," read a post on the government’s Identity Assurance Blog.

"They will ask you to give them some information and carry out some checks to allow them to verify that it’s really you."

After last year signing an agreement for identity assurance services with Digidentity, Experian, Mydex, The Post Office and Verizon, the government will next month issue a second procurement notice for new providers to replace its original contract, which is set to reach a pre-set service limit this year.

Ahead of the procurement launch, the Cabinet Office has published a guide designed to outline the requirements and necessary checks identity providers will be expected to provide for GOV.UK Verify.

After a user provides at least two pieces of evidence to register with a chosen identity provider, the company will then be required to provide checks through either the LoA 2 or LoA 3 authentication process to ensure the submitted documents are real and belong to the user who submitted them.

Once a user is registered for the service successfully, the identity provider is then charged with performing a separate list of checks each time they attempt to access or sign into a government service.